The Festival of Ideas For The New City is an event due to take place in New York this May. The Festival is a collaborative initiative in the downtown area that taps the large and diverse creative pool present in the city. The project imagines how the city will be shaped in the future. The culmination of the festival is a three day ‘Slate of Symposia’. The event includes a number of guest speakers including the likes of Rem Koolhaus, 8 independent projects and a street festival.

The Streetfest design element of the festival was won by a collaboration between Family and Playlab. The design is a series of tents called “The Worm”. The tents will run along the bowery and into the New Museum during the event. The design is made up of brightly coloured, waterproof nylon elements that fit together in modules.

The Worms have openings that direct people to specific venues and areas that hold other events. The structures created with their modular nature will be able to be reused and assembled differently to suit future events. The modules have been specifically designed with a number of different efficiencies in mind. The sections can be compacted to aid in transportation costs and simply pull out for ease of assembly.

This image below shows a number of the possible configurations that mean the Worm will not only create a fascinating event space now but in many orientations in the future as the Worm could slot in to almost any context.